Disappearance of data related to the ‘Mysterious spike’ of deaths after vaccination among people under 45 years of age in New Brunswick

Investigation report

Background

See the following articles and YouTube recording for the background:

• CBC article: “Mysterious spike in N.B. deaths in 2021 not due to COVID, health minister says”, Posted: May 13, 2022, URL: https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6451680

• «“Mysterious spike” in excess deaths in New Brunswick: Now you see it. Now you don’t», May 21 https://ivim.substack.com/p/mysterious-spike-in-excess-deaths

• «“Killer on the road” in New Brunswick: killing mainly under 44. CBC started talking about it. StatsCan removed data », May 19: https://ivim.substack.com/p/killer-on-the-road-in-new-brunswick

• Recording of the “Open Canada Data” seminars on 2022-05-20 : https://youtu.be/Q3J_P5yk_kM

Data source

Source: Statistics Canada - Table 13-10-0768-01

URL: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1310076801
Data Releases: 2022-04-14 vs. 2022-05-12
Cached: https://github.com/IVI-M/std-data/tree/main/ca/statcan-deaths-by-age/NB

Data preview

Extracts below show :

• the first and last five lines of the dataset after 2018-01-01,
• the date of the last entry,
• the date of the last numeric entry for each age group (i.e. which is when entry is a number, not NA - Not Available)

Data Release: 2022-04-14

##             Date           GEO value               Age        Sex
##           <IDat>        <char> <int>            <char>     <char>
##    1: 2018-01-06 New Brunswick   180          all ages Both sexes
##    2: 2018-01-06 New Brunswick    90          all ages      Males
##    3: 2018-01-06 New Brunswick    95          all ages    Females
##    4: 2018-01-06 New Brunswick     5     0 to 44 years Both sexes
##    5: 2018-01-06 New Brunswick     0     0 to 44 years      Males
##   ---                                                            
## 3206: 2022-02-05 New Brunswick    NA    65 to 84 years      Males
## 3207: 2022-02-05 New Brunswick    NA    65 to 84 years    Females
## 3208: 2022-02-05 New Brunswick    NA 85 years and over Both sexes
## 3209: 2022-02-05 New Brunswick    NA 85 years and over      Males
## 3210: 2022-02-05 New Brunswick    NA 85 years and over    Females

##              GEO         V1
##           <char>     <IDat>
## 1: New Brunswick 2022-02-05

##                   Age        Sex         V1
##                <char>     <char>     <IDat>
##  1:          all ages Both sexes 2021-10-23
##  2:          all ages      Males 2021-10-23
##  3:          all ages    Females 2021-10-23
##  4:     0 to 44 years Both sexes 2021-10-23
##  5:     0 to 44 years      Males 2021-10-23
##  6:     0 to 44 years    Females 2021-10-23
##  7:    45 to 64 years Both sexes 2021-10-23
##  8:    45 to 64 years      Males 2021-10-23
##  9:    45 to 64 years    Females 2021-10-23
## 10:    65 to 84 years Both sexes 2021-10-23
## 11:    65 to 84 years      Males 2021-10-23
## 12:    65 to 84 years    Females 2021-10-23
## 13: 85 years and over Both sexes 2021-10-23
## 14: 85 years and over      Males 2021-10-23
## 15: 85 years and over    Females 2021-10-23

Data Release: 2022-05-12

##             Date           GEO value               Age        Sex
##           <IDat>        <char> <int>            <char>     <char>
##    1: 2018-01-06 New Brunswick   180          all ages Both sexes
##    2: 2018-01-06 New Brunswick    90          all ages      Males
##    3: 2018-01-06 New Brunswick    95          all ages    Females
##    4: 2018-01-06 New Brunswick     5     0 to 44 years Both sexes
##    5: 2018-01-06 New Brunswick     0     0 to 44 years      Males
##   ---                                                            
## 3266: 2022-03-05 New Brunswick    NA    65 to 84 years      Males
## 3267: 2022-03-05 New Brunswick    NA    65 to 84 years    Females
## 3268: 2022-03-05 New Brunswick    NA 85 years and over Both sexes
## 3269: 2022-03-05 New Brunswick    NA 85 years and over      Males
## 3270: 2022-03-05 New Brunswick    NA 85 years and over    Females

##              GEO         V1
##           <char>     <IDat>
## 1: New Brunswick 2022-03-05

##                   Age        Sex         V1
##                <char>     <char>     <IDat>
##  1:          all ages Both sexes 2021-11-27
##  2:          all ages      Males 2021-11-27
##  3:          all ages    Females 2021-11-13
##  4:     0 to 44 years Both sexes 2021-06-05
##  5:     0 to 44 years      Males 2021-10-09
##  6:     0 to 44 years    Females 2021-11-13
##  7:    45 to 64 years Both sexes 2021-11-20
##  8:    45 to 64 years      Males 2021-11-06
##  9:    45 to 64 years    Females 2021-10-30
## 10:    65 to 84 years Both sexes 2021-11-27
## 11:    65 to 84 years      Males 2021-10-30
## 12:    65 to 84 years    Females 2021-11-13
## 13: 85 years and over Both sexes 2021-11-27
## 14: 85 years and over      Males 2021-11-27
## 15: 85 years and over    Females 2021-11-13

Comparative graphs

Vertical lines indicate the date when vaccination started with high-risk population (December 14, 2020) and (thick line) when vaccination was extended to general population (May 1, 2021)

Observations:

• In the release of 2022-05-12 the data for ‘all sexes’ in age group 0 to 44 after 6 June 2021 have been erased, i.e.. original values that were published on 2022-04-14 replaced with blanks (‘NA’ (Not available). Incidentally, this is exactly when the highest peak in deaths in this population of new-brunswicker was observed and commented on by the province health minister

Related consideration

The data in several fields of the data are interrelated. One can not easily erase data in one field without affecting values in other field. Specifically:

• ‘All ages’ values should equal to the sum of deaths in all age groups. In April release of the data, this appears to be the case. In May release it is not.

• ‘Both sexes’ values should be equal to the sum of deaths in both sexes. This does not appear to be the case. It is not clear how or why this could have been possible.

Hence further investigation and monitoring of these data is recommended